Q&A: Tom Delay, Carbon Trust
Updated on 09 May 2007
Tom Delay speaks to Channel 4 News online about our carbon impression on the environment.
Q: How have things changed since you started in 2001?
A: "Then the emphasis for most businesses was on cost-saving - save money and then do something for the environment.
"What we have seen over time is a much broader range of influences coming in: stakeholders, corporate social responsibility - the market has rounded off.
"People are much more in favour of doing this kind of work now even if it is a marginal decision. It's good for the company's reputation."
Q: What do you think of press coverage of the climate change debate?
A: "There's an overheating of the issue - many people hear conflicting views. We have gone from people not hearing enough about this issue - to them hearing too much. We have to help debunk that and provide the facts."
Q: Is the government doing enough to combat climate change?
A: "The government's target is a 60 per cent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050. You can make a case for saying if the rest of the world is not going to come on board then the targets need to be higher.
My view - a bit more traditional - is that we are trying to create a step-change.
"I think of trust's work as like trying to pull a tractor with a rubber band - if we pull too hard we'll leave business, consumers and government behind.
"Do I think government should be doing more? Yes. But governments are short term, you are asking them to make decisions now that result in immediate pain - with no benefits for 30 to 40 years.
"I don't think we have given them the mandate to do that. What the consumer does is important right now."
Q: If you could get government to change just one thing what would it be?
A: "I would want government to get in place a market framework and conditions to sustain a significant carbon price - with a long term outlook."
Q: What do you think of carbon trading?
A: "Carbon trading is a fantastic achievement - it's by far the biggest single measure to combat climate change.
"The downside is the targets under the trading scheme are very low and as a result there's no real price for carbon.
"I would almost question whether this approach of government's negotiating with businesses across Europe is the right way of doing things.
"I can imagine a situation where we have a body like the Bank of England setting interest rates - some sort of institution in Europe for a carbon price.
"Twenty five euros a tonne. Buy and sell the carbon price at about that."
Q: We revealed the process is sometimes flawed, what do you think?
A: "What you can't do is work out with these factories where carbon trading is supposedly happening, is whether it's your money making it happen? Is it someone else's money, are they doing it at all - would they have done it anyway?
"It's called addtionality and it's the biggest single thorn in the side for these kinds of schemes."
Q: You introduced the conecpt of carbon labelling earlier this year with Walkers crisps - what's the latest?
A: "We are working with other firms - we'll be looking to do it with about 10 companies initially. But more than 100 firms approached us after the initial publicity.
"It is the next step logical step for many firms. It is looking down the supply chain and really understanding what it means - in a carbon sense - even for a packet of crisps.
"For example, how long will it be before Easyjet or Ryanair put a label on their flights to Rome suggesting their carbon footprint is better than BA's - because of a greater capacity per size of aircraft?"
Q: Miliband has floated the idea of carbon rationing - what do you think of it?
A: It's an interesting end game, but it's quite a long a long way off. Carbon labelling would feed into that - because people would need to how much everything was worth in terms of carbon points.
Q: What did you make of the Stern Report?
A: "Stern's reputation is enormous - he is the former chief economist at the World Bank; tackling a major issue in a serious way.
"I think the great thing to come out of it was the notion it will cost us more not to do something - than to do something. It breaks the mould that this problem is too expensive to deal with now."
Q: What big plans does the trust have for the near future?
A: "We will be looking to put up to 500 mega watts of renewable energy - like wind turbines - on publicly-owned land; it is going to be a big story.
"It's a completely untapped market at the moment, most renewable energy is on private land, but if you think of NHS trusts, local authorities, prisons, railway hoardings - there's lots of land to use.
"There are concerns over visual intrusion - but quite frankly a lot of this publicly-owned land people won't care what goes on it."
Q: Some suggest it's two late to address climate change - and combating it now is futile?
A: "We are not doomed, absolutely not. If climate change starts to accelerate at a quick rate - and gets away from us - then it's game over.
"But we are in a position where we have identified the problem, and we think we know what to do about it.
"I think there is a difference between how Europe and the US are addressing the issue though. In Europe we are far less optimistic about finding a miracle cure for this - whereas in America there is more optimism.
"We are doing more now in the hope in hope such technology will emerge, whereas in the US they believe it will - so are doing less."
Q: What car do you drive?
A: "It varies. As a family car we have got a big old Saab estate, I don't know what model it is - but it's about six-years-old.
"Occasionally I take out something with the lowest carbon footprint of all vehicles - a little 1977 Fiat Spider, with about 230,000 miles on the clock.
"The truth is we cycle a lot too. We haven't considered getting rid of the Saab because we have a big dog! I think it ties in to the reality of this.
"People have to do what's do-able. We have got a big dog so we need a big car. Do you use the car as much as we used to? No. We get on the bikes more.
"When we went skiing as a family I drove the family there instead of flying - it is marginal decisions like that which matter.
"Next time we buy a car what will we buy? My gut feeling is we will probably by a diesel - it might be smaller but it's still got to have room for the dog.
"For most of us there are a whole series of marginal decisions we can make that do have an impact - rather than saying we need to move to some completely different place."
Q: Which area which you highlight as the biggest culprit in the UK in terms of carbon emissions?
A: "The biggest area to look at is buildings - of all kinds. They are responsible for half of our emissions and if you look at what are the really obvious things we can do - it is to do with buildings.
"Using less lighting - having light sensors - switches that automatically turn the computer off at night - these are things that are going to make a big difference."
